flimflamFLOOM
Sunday 25 September 2011
Friday 1 July 2011
Lampeter
Just finished my fieldtrip to Lampeter.
had a 3 days of lectures and practicals as preparations for the trip. the practicals were useful, learnt a lot about surveying and traversing. but the lectures were a bit overkill. info overload. but oh well, the 3 days crawled by...
monday, gathered in front of bloomsbury to take a coach to lampeter. the weather was fine till we reached wales -.- had stops for lunch, and toilet break at wales best toilet or sth. haha. reached lampeter about 4.30pm, got our rooms, unpacked and then it was dinner time. after dinner, work started.
basically it was just breakfast at 8, morning briefing at 9. then work all the way till dinner then briefing at 7pm then work until we're done for the day. up and about. tiring. with horrible weather for the first week. it was grey, and gloomy, and raining, and windy and miserable. the place was small and boring and miserable. argh.
first week we had to do 4 tasks. task 1 took up a bulk of our time. it was pretty interesting, did surveying and traversing and detailing. it was quite fun lor actly, just tht the weather and the place and the timing of the whole field trip and a certain group member...
omg the group member was horrible. he is soooo annoying. he just has sth against me like irritating to the max. urgh. he claims that i just want to argue with him and tht whatever he say im against it. im not the only one lor. my other groupmates also not for his ideas. but its just me. after tht, whatever i say is wrong and he cannot give me reasons. aiya just damn annoying la. made my horrible week even more horrible.
weekend came and we had task 3 and task 4 which weren't really counted. and also some time off but time off also nothing to do -.- we went to tour the lynn brianne dam. pretty nice place. and tht day was super hot. so many angmors sun burnt. haha. veh funny to see.
ohh and just to show how small the town is, 10 mins either way, you are into the next town. yup that's how small the place is. miserable -.-
2nd week is a lot better. it was scenario 5. we were all so worried that we'll be damn busy and overworked. plus due to the stress and bad weather, a lot of people were sick. but then, it turned out tht scenario 5 was actly enjoyable. quite chill and slack actly. nth much to do. but with nth to do, we really hv nth to do beacuse the place is...
we worked out in the fields with cows and sheep and cow poo and sheep poo and stinging nettles. luckily we had very good weather. it was quite fun working outdoors, and setting out our road and all that. i felt that i actly learnt in this scenario and there were lots of hands on. i like :)
and my group went trekking and trespass like a thousand farms and walked past cows and sheep. haha. fun fun :)
the trip is finally over :) time to prepare for dubai and then back home to singapore! :D
had a 3 days of lectures and practicals as preparations for the trip. the practicals were useful, learnt a lot about surveying and traversing. but the lectures were a bit overkill. info overload. but oh well, the 3 days crawled by...
monday, gathered in front of bloomsbury to take a coach to lampeter. the weather was fine till we reached wales -.- had stops for lunch, and toilet break at wales best toilet or sth. haha. reached lampeter about 4.30pm, got our rooms, unpacked and then it was dinner time. after dinner, work started.
basically it was just breakfast at 8, morning briefing at 9. then work all the way till dinner then briefing at 7pm then work until we're done for the day. up and about. tiring. with horrible weather for the first week. it was grey, and gloomy, and raining, and windy and miserable. the place was small and boring and miserable. argh.
first week we had to do 4 tasks. task 1 took up a bulk of our time. it was pretty interesting, did surveying and traversing and detailing. it was quite fun lor actly, just tht the weather and the place and the timing of the whole field trip and a certain group member...
omg the group member was horrible. he is soooo annoying. he just has sth against me like irritating to the max. urgh. he claims that i just want to argue with him and tht whatever he say im against it. im not the only one lor. my other groupmates also not for his ideas. but its just me. after tht, whatever i say is wrong and he cannot give me reasons. aiya just damn annoying la. made my horrible week even more horrible.
weekend came and we had task 3 and task 4 which weren't really counted. and also some time off but time off also nothing to do -.- we went to tour the lynn brianne dam. pretty nice place. and tht day was super hot. so many angmors sun burnt. haha. veh funny to see.
ohh and just to show how small the town is, 10 mins either way, you are into the next town. yup that's how small the place is. miserable -.-
2nd week is a lot better. it was scenario 5. we were all so worried that we'll be damn busy and overworked. plus due to the stress and bad weather, a lot of people were sick. but then, it turned out tht scenario 5 was actly enjoyable. quite chill and slack actly. nth much to do. but with nth to do, we really hv nth to do beacuse the place is...
we worked out in the fields with cows and sheep and cow poo and sheep poo and stinging nettles. luckily we had very good weather. it was quite fun working outdoors, and setting out our road and all that. i felt that i actly learnt in this scenario and there were lots of hands on. i like :)
and my group went trekking and trespass like a thousand farms and walked past cows and sheep. haha. fun fun :)
the trip is finally over :) time to prepare for dubai and then back home to singapore! :D
Monday 20 June 2011
Copied from Facebook notes :)
It's the end of Day5 of my 17day Eastern Europe Trip :D Really amazing 5 days thus far. like really really amazing. i just need to keep track of what i did so i'm writing a short note :D
Day 1:
Took a train from King's Cross to Luton Airport. Epic Fail #1: i didn't get my e-ticket stamped for visa purposes because i just thought i can walk through like any other trips. Got stopped at the gate before boarding the plane and the mean short guy did not want to let me on the plane, or back out to get the stamp. Another tall handsome guy excorted me out via don't know what way (but woah, i got to walk through unaccessedbypublic areas of the airport haha), got the stamp and had to do the security checks all over again, but i got on the plane fine :D whee :D
Reached Tallinn, Estonia 20mins early. Took a bus to the city centre and found my way successfully to my hostel. Really pretty hostel, with nice duvets and all. It was a 6 bed dorm. That night there was a hongkong guy, a canadian old woman (omg she is so cooooool she tours and tours when i grow old i want to be like her :D), a brit and a middle eastern who works in london.
Toured the Old Town that afternoon. Ate at a pub serving Estonian food in a European style (meaning estonian food tweaked for tourists -.-). and the chef that day was *drumroll* the chef from fat duck. YES the one michelin fat duck chef. slurp slurp :D omg the old town is full of cobblestones. i do not like cobblestones. they make my feet very painful. i dunno how the ladies there wear their heels.
ohh and i ate their national chocolate. it's like the uber famous everybody eats (there's like entire shelves of that brand in the supermarket) it. so i bought those atas one by one choose the flavour ones. bought 3 highly recommended by the shopowner and omg soooooo good. especially the marzipan (which originated from tallinn) super good. didn't buy for souvenir though (reason being..)
was super duper tired that night and slept at 11pm but the sky was so bright. i woke up at 7 the next day and it was alrdy bright i thought i took an afternoon nap -.-
Day 2:
I wanted to go the Lahemma National Park on Day 3 but apparantly it's only accessible by car, so i had to scrap that. Original plan was to go to Haapsalu (coastal town) today, but i changed that to Day 3 cos it was more convenient. So i went 270degrees around the Old Town.
I went to Kadriorg Park (NE of Old Town) to look at grass and statues and castles and the freedom monument, then i walked to the harbour (N of Old Town), sat on a bench and stared at a cruise come in. There's sth about the sea that attracts me. Love the sound of waves and looking at the cruise reminds me of my cruise trips. nostalgic :) and the sea reminds me of sailing :)
after that i went to the Open-Air Museum (SW of Old Town). took a bus cos it's quite far and talked to the old lady sitting beside me. she didn't really understand me and i didn't really understand her, but yah we managed to hold a 15min conversation. haha. the open-air museum is really really really nice, it showcases houses, farms and settlements of old Estonia, so really cool. and it's outdoors. you actly walk on grass and sand and yah it was by the sea. they had the real and some rebuilt houses of the past, and the best part is they actly hire pple to sit around and pretend they are from the past. just that a lot of them were talking on their phones -.- and i ate at this cafe which was in an old style tavern. the door is so difficult to opened i thought it was locked and they were closed. food served was all traditional estonian food, so i had a soup (i dunno what was inside but there's barley) and a drink. the drinks were pretty normal like coffee, tea but one had no translation so i ordered that. it's kama, some yogurt thing with grains, really really estonian and i like it :D
then i went to nomme (S of Old Town), which was where the old lady stayed. i wanted to see the residential area so i took a bus down to take a look. it was really interesting. they stay in houses along streets. like terrace houses, but standalones. bungalows? but anyway, the interesting thing is that every house is different. it's not like in singapore where all the houses look the same, each house was different. it's like there can be a stone house, then a wooden house, then a concrete house. no straw houses though.
Ready for Epic Fail #2? i was back at the hostel doing my accounts. when i realised i was short of a lot of Euros. so i took really good care of my stuff so i didn't think somebody stole my money, so i thought i rmbed the amount i changed wrongly. but no matter how i calculated, the amount didn't tally. so i smsed ziyang who was holding my room key to check how much i changed (i wrote it down) and guess what? i didn't rmb wrongly, i just forgot to bring the money. clapclap thankyou. so yup i brought over160Euros less than planned (85 actly, 75 was left from the previous trip which i didn't count it in). ah well, i survived. haha. have to pay for my chernobyl tour in UAH though. but yah, i'm fine :D
hongkong guy left.
Day 3:
Went to Haapsalu. it's a coastal town in western estonia. small town, with castles, and beaches. basically did a walkabout, and when i reached the promenade (omg it was so nice, there was nobody it was so peaceful so i sat and looked at the sea and fed birds) it EPIC FAIL #3 started raining -.- took shelter at a restaurant and had an estonian cake. then i decided to just go ahead with my walkabout with an umbrella. went to the harbour and spent the next two hours in and out of free galleries (because it was raining and nobody goes to the beach when it rains). Rain stopped and i made my way to the beach. wasn't really a beach, more of a seaside playground. there was a swing and i just sat on the swing and looked at the sea. told you i love the sea :D
then it got a bit cold, so i went to the only resort there and because the place looked like ZOMG atas maxed, i decided to just maybe hv a cup of tea while waiting for the bus to come. had a tomato soup instead and they served a welcome dish complimentary from the chef. smoked salmon, really fresh. and i noticed after that that the other tables didn't get it. wahahaha. my soup came and it was soooooooooo good could totally taste the freshness of the tomato soup and i was like ok i need to continue the meal. haha. so i ordered an estonian quail in grape soup, but they didn't hv that so the waiter suggested a pasta with smoked chicken and hazelnuts in an estonian style sauce and offered to change the chicken to quail. super yummy also :D then i finished my meal with a mojito creme brulee, made from estonian liquer. superb meal :D for less than 10euros :D love love :D
took the bus back to tallinn and then a coach to riga. this marked the end of the estonian leg of the journey and next is latvia!
Day 4:
arrived at riga at 4.50am. made my way to my hostel, avoiding leftover friday night clubbers. found my way there and they only allow check in at 12nn :( so i took a shower and slept for a while in the lounge. at around 8, the girl let me into the room (16 bed dorm), i put my things down, unpacked and ahem EPIC FAIL#4. i realised i left a bag of dirty clothes in tallinn -.- good thing there's only 2 tank tops from primark and a pair of socks. then i went out. the canoe trip i signed up for got cancelled so i decided to go to Sigulda National Park today instead of tmr.
took a quick look at the central market beside the bus station and bought a bag of awesomely sweet cherries :D
there was some cultural festival there, so it was really crowded and *gasps* lots of kids. basked in their festive mood, and trekked around. had sloanka, a soup with russian origins at the end point and took a bus back to riga.
reached riga at around 6, caught some parts of the GO blonde festival (a really big festival in riga where real and fake blondes compete for miss blonde or sth like that, and drinking and being blonde, yah). took out a map and followed it and toured the old town. more cobblestones. ate at a recommended restaurant and tried latvian food. yumyum :D
due to the lack of sleep, i slept at 10 and woke up at 8plus. hahaha. and my 16bed dorm only had 3 females that night, all solo travellers. woohoo :D
Day 5:
went to the art noveau architecture area. really really pretty houses. there was this picture in the guide book with an owl motiff and i walked the entire area looking for it. finally found it :D yay! but yah the architecture was really beautiful :) after that went to the central market. the market is huuuuuge. i love going to markets and supermarkets, it's these places where you can get some ideas of the everyday life of the people living there. and it's so busy, all the hustle and bustle makes me happy :D
then i went for lativan potato pancakes and a desert called bread soup (super super yummy) and woohoo headed to naughty squirrel hostel for the shooting. EPIC FAIL #5 when i arrived they were leaving cos they changed the time to an earlier one.so i kinda missed them as i was waiting for the receptionist who was attending to sb else. we chased them and reached the tram stop just in time. phew. i was the only female other than me was the hostel person who were bringing us there -.- nobody talked to me except for this philipino who worked in london.
when we reached the shooting range, which was originally a soviet bunk, we were given instructions and shooting started. first was a glock. we took turns to shoot and i was the last cos i stood the furthest from the lady in charge, who is the owner of the shooting range and some ex shooting champion. after i finished shooting she started spewing latvian words and the hostel person translated, basically, i'm good. hahahaha. next was the ak. i don't think it's ak47. if i didn't rmb wrongly, i think it's ak101, a more advanced version. the impact wasn't so great, it was ok. a bit scary at the start though. and yah, she started spewing more latvia. now, i'm really really good. hahahaha. third and last was the shot gun (the one the hunter used to chase bugs bunny). this one is the cooooolest. cos we had to load it. you knw the whole CHA-CHING thing. damn cool. and because this one gets hotter with use, the lady asked me to go first. hehheh. got a shock for the first one. the impact was huge. but yeah, after this, i'm talented. hahahaha. ohh and the group started talking to me. it's like i'm no longer this small asian girl (ok, i knw i'm not small, but most of them were big angmors, aussie i think), but somebody worth talking to. talked to them for a while. after we finished the shooting, went back to the hostel and chatted for awhile. omg this 2 guys are going to do a 4 month drive all around europe trip. super cool. oh and i impress them with my trip. they were like, wow but you're asian! eh what? asians pack a punch too,k?
then i went to the main branch of this Lido Group of restaurants. really highly recommended. it has it's own bus stop. it's not just a restaurant, it has it's own mini theme park for kids. and it's the largest log house in europe. the setting is marche style, you see, you choose, you take then you pay at the end counted. omg the variety was overwhelming. when i walked in i was like "shunjie, jolene, i need you here. NOW". the place is amazaing. a really relaxed happy atmosphere, food with quantity, quality and variety. i was enjoying myself, looking at the latvians dance spontaneously to the music and enjoying my food, i didn't want to leave.
tonight, there's only me and another dutch lady in the 16 room dorm. this is worth it. haha. oh and i figured out where. there's a room where alcohol is allowed downstairs. so all the men took that room. haha.
and that's all for now. ok, this was supposed to be a short note :b i'm really really glad i made this trip. i was a little nervous at first, i mean it's so long, and it's eastern europe. i actually did think of shortening it or forfeiting it, but i decided it was going to worth it and it has been so far :D really really enjoying myself and having the time of my life :D
every night i want to go to sleep quickly because i can't wait for the next day, but i don't want to sleep because i don't want today to end.
thank you mummy and daddy for letting me do this :D
Day 6:
planned to cycle from riga to jurmala (a seaside town) and then along the cycling path to kemeri nature reserve. Epic Fail #6 that didn't happen. the bicycle rental shop bluff me, they said they open at 9.30 but the waiter at the restaurant opp say they always open at 11. so i decided to train to jurmala and rent a bike there instead. when i reached jurmala, i looked for the info centre and she gave me the few nearest bike rental shops. none.of.them.were.open. bloody. hell. so ok fine, don't cycle lor. i walk. maybe it was a good thing, cos there were many places that were unreachable by bike.
and i walked along the beach. ommmggg love it. cos it was a monday, so the beach was pretty quiet. weather was ok, a little sunny but with a lot of clouds. so the sun came in and out. the sand was fine, the wind was cooling and the sound of the waves was therapeutic. and it's the baltic sea, and the waters in this region are less salty than normal sea water, so you don't get the sticky sticky feeling. very very chillax :) walked around and looked at the area then i took a minibus to kemeri. the moment i got off the bus i was like o.o super dilapidated. not a human in sight. so i scrapped the idea of going into the nature reserve, in case i get lost and nobody knows, walked through the outside park and waited for a bus to bring me back to civilisation. wanted to ferry back, but i missed it so i trained back instead.
dinner was fun. haha. i basically have about 5lats to spend. the last 5lats. so i needed to find a cheap place. i just anyhow walk and i came by this interesting pelmini place. pelmini is a kind of dumpling with russian origins. and it's sold by weight. so you take as many as you want, they weigh it and you pay how much you take. so i had pelmini and i had a bowl of cold beetroot soup. it's a baltic soup. called zulva supa or sth like that. it looks like bandung. it's basically beetroot, cucumber, chopped egg and kefir (buttermilk) and dill. it tasted pretty good, but i believe it's acquired taste. whoever thought of mixing those things together... so the soup and pelmini cost me 1.70lats. then i crossed the street and had dessert :D had a chocolate cake with riga black blasam cream. black balsam is a liqueur only found in riga. that's 1.50lats. so i spent 3.20lats :D still got leftover for breakfast tmr :D hehheh.
so this marks the end of leg 2, the latvian leg. taking a 5hour bus to klaipeda, lithuania tmr. wheeeee :D
Day 7:
omg one week. i've been travelling alone for an entire week. wooo. in klaipeda, lithuania now. woah my god it is daaaaamn hot. it's 29deg today. spent most of the time on a bus though. wanted to take the 9.30am bus from riga and reach at 2pm but there were no more seats so i had to take the 11.15am one. reached at around 4.15pm. EPIC FAIL #7. seriously, do i have to have one everyday? -.- but maybe it was good, cos the 9.30am one was a minibus and i one i took was a big coach with nice big chairs. so anyway, i spent the 5 hours looking at the scenery. lots of vast green land with random houses here and there. and they have many many ponds and lakes. plus the clear blue sky today, pretty :D lithuania is 200m below sea level on average. random fact. haha. yup, so reached klaipeda, checked into my hostel which is like right at the door step of the bus station.
went to the old town to tour. after tallinn and riga, klaipeda's old town just pales in comparison. it was really quiet. ohh and they hv a lot of random statues here and there. like a cupid here, a mouse there, a cat somewhere else. apparantly, your secret wishes will come true if you stroke the cat's tail. but there was a couple making out so erm i gave it a miss. haha. if i have the time i'll go look for more.
i didn't really feel like exploring cos of the super duper hot weather, so i looked for dinner. had some fried cod thingy. omg the cod is suuuuuper fresh. ohh and i had a gira, which is similar to the kvass in latvia. hooked on the drink. it's very yummy :D then i made my way back to the hostel. i need to wash my clothes. haha. tmr's my last set boo.
oh and i bought a bottle of sunblock. haha.
Day 8:
OMMMMGGG I AM SOOOOO TIRED MY LEGS ARE GOING TO GIVE WAY SOON. anyway, today was hell of an adventure. hahaha. so i went to curonian spit, a long narrow stretch of land made up of sand dunes. Human habitation of this elongated sand dune peninsula, 98 km long and 0.4-4 km wide, dates back to prehistoric times. Throughout this period it has been threatened by the natural forces of wind and waves. Its survival to the present day has been made possible only as a result of ceaseless human efforts to combat the erosion of the Spit, dramatically illustrated by continuing stabilisation and reforestation projects.
original plan was to ferry there with a bike rented from my hostel, cycle to the other end and ferry back. but the ferry only goes from one end, so if i cycle i have to do to and fro which is like 100km. seeing that i've walked for a week and have another week to walk, i decided not to. 50km can, 100? maybe not. so i decided to ferry there, and bus about.
so i reached there. walked ard a little while waiting for the bus which is once every 3 hours for both directions. reached the other end, nida. the main attraction is the highest sand dune, 52m above sea level. so i walked to the sand dune and climbed up. it was sandy. haha. so a bit difficult to walk but i reached the top. omg the view was breathtaking. i dunno why, i was awed. it was like i can see the rest of the island, i can see the curonian lagoon on one side, the baltic sea on the other and i can see a bit of russia (not the big piece, russia has this other area beside lithuania). it was damn cool. at that moment, i was like, omg jasvin you're awesome. hahahaha. after the initial *gasp*, i saw this wooden path. damn. i walked up the sandy way -.-
so i just walked around the village after that, had lunch and caught the next bus to the centre part of the spit. i finished seeing the sights in about an hour. so i had 2 hours to kill before the next bus. i didn't want to go to the beach, cos i'm doing that tmr, so i decided to chill at the harbour. the moment i sat down, omg mosquitoes attack! so i couldn't sit. i had to walk ard but walking along the harbour for 2 hours is lame. so i decided to walk towards the ferry terminal, 18km away. there's this monument at the halfway mark. so i decided to walk to the monument and then take the bus from there. 1 hour 30 mins shld be enough. the walk was pretty ok. i could see the curonian lagoon, it was sunny and windy so the feeling was kinda good. only thing was the mosquitoes and sandflies. omg ive never seen so many sandflies before and the mosquitoes look more like dragonflies.
time was enough, i reached the monument and waited for the bus. ah ha, EPIC FAIL #9. i chose the wrong time to turn around, open my bag, reached for my water bottle and drink water. of all things, i cannot multi-task when it comes to drinking water. when i finished my water and put down my bottle, i saw the backside of the bus. OMG MY HEART DROPPED TO THE FLOOR AND TUNNEL THROUGH ABOUT 4238972km. the next bus is 3 hours later.the walk down is another 1 hour 30 mins. damn. so i decided to hitchhike. dangerous i know i know, but i selectively hitch hike. i told myself, i try 3 vehicles, by the third one if nobody fetch me, i'm calling the tourism office to save me.
1st car was a car of family, they didn't stop. maybe the car was too full with a dog and a baby. 2nd car was 2 females 1 male, i saw them at the harbour. they didn't stop either. 3rd car i was like omg pleeeeeeease stop. i put out my thumb, and the car drove past. it was an old couple, and the car drove past cos the old man didn't have time to react, he stopped a little down. YAY! so they didn't speak english and i didn't speak lithuanian, so using hand gestures and a map and pointing, they not only fetched me to the ferry terminal, they fetched me to the next destination. OMG SOOOOO NICE AND I AM SOOOO GRATEFUL :D wheepee!
had dinner, and came back to the hostel. i am sooo tired. the only walking i'm doing tmr is walk to the bus stop and take bus. hahaha. oh and lithuanian food is a little on the salty side for me. but the desserts are nice. they make yummy things out of raspberry, the same way latvians make yummy things out of rye bread. haha.
tiiiirreeedddd, but happy :D
Day 9:
woah, more than half my trip gone.
today i went to palanga beach, a beach along the baltic sea. i suntan facing north pole ok? cool hor. spain and greece and croatia? bo-o-ring! haha jkjk i still want to go :b yup, so today was chillax to the max. i went to palanga, found a nice spot and lepak there for 3 hours. then i decided to go walk about, but i just kept thinking of the beach. so i went back and sunbathed for another 2 hours. wheeee :D damn chill. lovely weather as well. sunny but couldn't feel the heat. love it :D after that i had dinner. omg the dessert was super good.
that's all i did today. rest and relax :D recharge for the next 8 days :b off to vilnius in a while :D damn excited for the next 8 days. people i've met have been telling me how beautiful vilnius, krakow and kiev are. ooooh excitement much :D :D :D
ohh and i saw my first chinese today. haha. met a hk lady at the hostel. hahahaha.
ohh and lithuanian tv is cool. you knw how voices are dubbed on tv? yah well, they do that in lithuania too, just that one person dubs the voice of everybody. so it was really funny when it's a woman talking, but a man's voice. it's like watching a monologue. hahahaha.
tata!
Day 10:
omg i just realised day 9 no epic fail :D ytd dun hv also :D yay :D
reached vilnius at around 5.45am ytd, after a 6 hour bus ride. had a pleasant surprise. woke up at 3.30 and saw the sunrise. pretty :D i went back to slp and when i woke up again i thought i dreamt that i saw the sunrise, but nope, it's real. there's photos in my camera :D whee. and i saw the night sky for the 2nd time since i started my trip. first one was during the bus ride from tallinn to riga. haha. probably will see it one more time tonight on the freaking 14hour bus ride to krakow o.O
ok so anyway, i reached my hostel and i originally wanted to upgrade to a single or double room. but i saw the dorm and decided not to. the dorm is very cute. the beds are like huge shelves fitted with mattress. so i have a 'shelf' to myself and it's really cosy. and each shelf has a powerpoint, a lamp, a hook and a place to put our small items like hp and specs. it was pretty nice :D omg and the toilet is daaaaamn nice. like hotel one. whee.
so i slept for a couple more hours and headed off. went to trakai. it's a historic city and lake resort. it has the only castle in the world built on an island. basically there's this piece of land in the middle of 5 lakes and the only thing there is a castle. really tranquil place. plus it wasn't peak season, so it wasn't really crowded, as with all other places :D yay. wanted to take a yatch to go around the lakes, but it's damn ex. cos i would need to rent the whole yatch. would be worth it if it was a group. tried to haggle but to no avail. so i took the ferry instead. haha. still nice, just that yatch cool ma :b hahahaha. oh and there was a group of MPs from Kyrgyzstan. so this guy saw me and asked if i was from central asia cos he thought it'll be cool if i was and i can go talk to to the Kyrgyzstan people. haha.
ate at a recommended restaurant for karaim food, food of the Crimean Karaites who inhabit the place. i knew i was at the right place cos there was this tour group there. taiwanese. talk about seeing my first chinese -.- haha. saw so many today. and while i was waiting for my food, kyrgyzstan people came. haha. woo the puff pastry damn nice :D
after that i went to the center of europe. it's this point 26km north of vilnius which is internationally recognised as the geographical centre of europe. so having this weird liking for special points (think 3 point land hahah), i wanted to go see. there was basically a monument by a lithuanian sculptor and 20 over flags of european countries. i wanted to take pictures of the flags of countries i've been to, but i realise i dunno how the flags look like, like you knw the vertical horizontal stripes? confusing. so i gave up. haha. and then i walked around the area, all grass and grass and grass. cos it was near a golf course. hahaha. watched people play golf, saw a mount of grass and decided to climb up to get a view of the grass and didn't realise it was so steep until i wanted to go down. made it down safely and went to wait for my bus.
i am very brave. this bus also comes once in 3 hours. hahaha. so to prevent missing the bus and having to try to hitch hike or walk 26km back to vilnius, i didn't do anything else but focused on the road. i just looked at the road and with any sign of sth that looks like it could be the bus, i stood up. hahaha. success ok? haha i boarded the bus and phew :D drank water. haha. cos it was really hot :x
reached vilnius and just wandered around the old town looking for food. haha. then i came back and i wanted to do my laundry but i can only do so at 10pm. so i thought i will hv to wait, but nope :D all i have to do is pass my laundry to the person and she'll do it for me :D yay :D haha. clean clothes! :D
Day 11:
the lithuanian leg is coming to an end. leaving at 5pm for krakow. 14 hours bus ride. woah. wish me luck. hope i can get some english book/magazine/newspaper to read. still hv a little litai left to spend. baaaah.
so anyway today i walked the old town, looked at the buildings, architecture and sights. pretty crowded at some streets. some were just damn quiet. and i climbed 2 hills. one to see the castle ruins and another to see 3 crosses. haha jk, the 2nd one was for the view.
there was some challenge going on, so throughout the whole day i saw pple running, cycling, carrying kayaks. quite cool. i saw a handsome one and said all the best to him. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
ate at some lithuanian restaurant. omg the dessert was awesome. dunno what it is but it was good. haha. and now spent the next hour trying to finish up my litai but i couldn't find anything to buy :( probably get something at the bus station later.
wheeee :D 6 more days left!
Day 12:
KRAKOW! in my 4th country at the moment. different timezone from the rest. haha. different currency, again. came from vilnius on a 14hr bus ride. omg butt pain max. but it was fine. cos i just slept most of the time. read half of the time magazine i bought. hehheh. quite interesting. ohh and i tried catching the sunset and sunrise. didn't really see the sun. but saw the nice sky colours :D
upon reaching, trammed to my hostel. pretty nice. 4 to a room this time. so i unpacked, and bathed and washed some stuff. wanted to sleep for a while but i was too excited about seeing krakow. haha. so i couldn't sleep. so i just checked out some krakow stuff and a new roomie came. a big bloke from canada with tattoos. sounds scary? haha omg he's super friendly and he's a nurse by training. looks really damn deceiving. haha.
then i went to a sunday market at plac nowy. just walked around. then i went to the main market square to look look see see and to wait for the free tour. pretty interesting, learnt more about the history of poland and krakow (pronounced kra-kov by the way cos their w is pronounced as v). and the guide was quite good. wanted to tip him more but ah well, tight budget :b haha. the tour took like 3 hours. omg it was hot at 33deg. like 8 and a half months since i was in that temp.
after the free tour i went to wieliczka salt mine. that was another 3 hours, looking at the mine and the museum. omg the salt mine is awesome. it was kinda inspiring, really. the machinery and technology used back in the 12th and 13th century, simple in today's terms, but really really amazing. engineers ftw! haha. oh and practically everything inside was salt and wood. omg timber! haha for support. reminds me of materials :b oh and i saw the nicest chapel ever. it was inside the salt mine and everything was done by 3 miners. it was really really really beautiful. and the salt mine was a good excuse to escape the heat. haha. there's this ventilation system in the mine that keeps the temp at 14deg whatever the season. quite cool.
at the end of the tour i was super tired! legs were screaming. had a polish dinner at a place recommended by the free tour guide and back to the hostel. super tired.
early day tmr. gng to auschwitz and another free tour.
whee :D very tired, but very happy :D
Day 13:
woke up, ate breakfast and checked fb, email blahblahblah. went to double confirm my flight to kiev the next morning and realised it's stated as cancelled o.O bloody hell. skyped my mum and asked her to check for me (cos the office wasn't open and i was going out).
went to auschwitz (pronounced ows-vict) concentration camp. and it was a 3.5hr tour so i couldn't make it for the afternoon jewish quarter free tour. the trip to auschwitz was sad. it's a really saddening place. i took a few photos and didn't feel like taking anymore. felt like i dunno, 1.5million people died at auschwitz and birkenau camps and people were snapping away happily, posing with the crematorium and all that. i felt it was a little disrecpectful.
it was an informative tour. learnt about how things were like in the camps and some ww2 facts. after the tour, while waiting for the shuttle bus, i talked to this new zealander. he was at the tour alone too cos his wife didn't want to do the tour (she was deeply affected when she visited the germany camp). yah and apparantly we had similar thoughts, about how some people were not getting the message from the camp. like the camp was preserved and kept, for people to visit, not as a tourist attraction, but more of a memorial for the millions of innocent people who died and suffered and to serve as a reminder that we should work together to prevent such atrocities. and such atrocities have been happening for such a long time and is still happening. will we ever learn?
and when he realised i was from singapore he was like "oh, the only place where a social experiment succeeded". we discussed a bit about it, and a little about genghis khan (he killed 10 times as many people as hitler did fyi). it was a pretty cool discussion. he travelled very far and very wide and he had very interesting pespectives.
omg he is damn cool, he and his wife and another couple drove from hongkong and they are continuing to western europe and finishing in uk. and they have been doing such driving trips for 30years. mega cool. gave some tips on backpacking home from uk. jiapei!!! hahaha.
ok so after the tour, i headed back to the city and went to the train station to find out about trains to ukraine. basically, my flight really is cancelled, alternative flights are from 300pounds and the train ride is 20hrs. not an issue really, i mean no choice right? but if i took the direct train, i will miss my chernobyl tour on the 8th and i alrdy paid for tht deposit. so i was looking for alternatives. and since i had to take a train, i rather spend the night travelling and use the day to see the place. so i thought i'll break my ride into 2 and stopover at lviv.
there was a 10.15pm train to lviv, reaching at 6am (6.5hrs cos of time difference). but they couldn't tell me if there were trains from lviv to kiev. so i went back to my hostel to check. so yup there were, overnight somemore and i will reach in time for my chernobyl tour. so i washed up, packed, checked out and went to buy the train ticket to lviv before getting dinner. murphy's law: what will go wrong will go wrong. no more tickets :( normal ones at least. still had first class.
and i decided to take the first class. because the total trip will be 15pounds more expensive then the direct train to kiev, and i won't miss my chernobyl tour and i get to tour lviv for a day. yup so i got it. bought the ticket, heart pain and went to reward myself with a good dinner and desserts :D
omg first class was super shiok. basically, instead of seats, we get cabins. there's 2, 3 or 4 to a cabin. i got the 2 person cabin but there was only me inside. so there were 2 beds, a tv, a fridge, my own toilet. like a mini hotel room. the refreshments in the fridge are for me. whee :D there was a bottle of water, a bottle of orange juice and a chocolate bar. shiok. haha. ohh still got a towel to wash up.
so since there was only me, i made myself at home, changed into my sleeping clothes :b washed up and slept. wah amazing. haha. not the most comfy bed, and the pillow was quite flat (so i took the other pillow as well :b) but better then seats right? haha. yup and slept through, only got woken up when we passed the border and the customs officer came to check passports. my neighbour didn't have visas so they were sent back to poland by car (i heard the translator). after settling my passport, the customs officer said "welcome to ukraine!" haha. i think that's the only english he knows. lol. ohh the translator was a passenger. apparantly it's normal. the officer will look for somebody on the train who can translate. in restaurants too apparantly. went back to sleep and got woken up a little before arrival by breakfast delivery. had a croissant and a tea. whee. shiok max :D
Day 14:
Arrived in Lviv super on time, first thing went to get my train tickets to kiev. yay got it! and i got the first class again. not because there was no more normal class but the price difference is like erm 4pounds? for a bed? for 10hrs? worth it. haha. so bought my tix, had my daily dosage of internet and went out. oh i put my baggage at the baggage centre. it's 10uah for the whole day. that's less than a pound.
tourist centre opened at 10 but i was out before 8, so i decided to just walk around until the office opens to get a map. took a tram to the city centre and when i reached i was like :O super nice! lviv was influenced by western europe because it's in west ukraine and it used to belong to poland. so the architecture was rennaisance. super beautiful. i just walked and admired the buildings. and there were many signs showing where attractions were, so i just walked randomly and followed the signs. walked for 3hrs and went to the tourist office. took the map and realised i saw most of the attractions. haha. awesome me.
walked around a little longer. and i noticed that the lviv people are damn chillax. like tuesday morning sitting on a bench chatting, reading, or at a cafe eating ice cream, drinking coffee/beer. erm no need work ah? it just got more crowded as the day passed. so i decided to immerse myself in the lvivian atmosphere. i went to a cafe and chillax too. haha. people watched, read the brochures i got from the tourist office. chillax max. haha. oh i drank coffee. apparantly, lviv is famous for that. coffee was pretty good. oh and the traditional apple pie was good too. a bit too dry though.
after that i went to the armoury museum. 3uah (erm less than 30p lol). uber cool. saw the armoury from the past. at first i was like woah cool. and figuring out how some stuff worked and trying to imagine how they fought. some weapons seriously don't make sense. like there was a rifle with only the barrel, no handle. won't hot ah? and there were some swords/spears thingies that look so heavy that once you hold them you cannot fight. lol. and some of the weapons were really nice, like they had very intricate details like carvings and stuff.
ah well, beyond that, they were used to kill and injure. why? sorry, still emo nemo from auschwitz.
then i went to the bell tower. climbed like over 300 steps up. think i climbed a lot this trip. haha. the view was awesome. from up there i looked at where i walked and where i missed. then i went back down and walked the places i thought looked interesting from the bell tower. haha. glad i did, i walked pass more rennaisance buildings and lviv university. lviv university is really pretty. and it's 350 years old.
ohh the train station is really pretty too. pleasant surprise upon arrival :)
after walking around, i found this dining place at a corner where there was a lot of human traffic, so i went in. it was cafeteria styled. you take your food and pay. similar to lido at riga. omg awesome. if only shunjie and jolene were there. i had a layered liver cake (i dunno who's liver but it's ukranian so i try), cabbage rolls, a glass of kvas and a slice of some layered strudly custard torte. super yummy, including the liver cake. all for less than 3pounds. amazing. haha. oh and the cabbage rolls were really nice. think i'll try and learn how to make. hehheh.
after makan, walked around somemore just to see the buildings again and back to the train station. off to kiev! :D
oh i didn't talk much today. mostly pointed and sign language. haha. few people understnad english. so i wrote down key stuff in russian and basically just point and gesture. haha. ah well, worked well :D heh. and the foreign symbols all over the place may be intimidating at first but it was fine. couldn't understand a thing. but some places do hv english translation.
oh and people in lviv are very religious. they have alike crosses around the place and i noticed that people will do the hand to heart shoulder thingy when they passed. some will stop and pray or sth.
and the fashion sense here is... like the ladies all seem pretty well-enodowed in the chest area and they somehow seem to like wearing clothes a size too small. boobs were spilling out from everywhere. i saw a lot of boobs today. either that, or they show their bra. interesting fact. so guys, if you want to visit ukraine, do so in the summer .winter all wrapped up, nth to see :b
Day 15:
arrived in kiev. finally! got the sleeper train. not as shiok as the previous train cos it's an intercity train and not an international train. it's a 4 to a cabin. with 4 beddy things. i got the bed on the upper deck and the bed doesnt hv like rails or what. so it was quite scary. and i couldn't move down cos there were 2 other ladies in my cabin. ah well. the pillow was damn good though. haha. omg and the toilet is the most awful one i've seen in a very very long time. didn't use the toilet at all. sorry, i very anal abt toilet cleaniness one. the train ride was 10hrs, i slept for 9. spent the first half hour trying to slp cos the cabin was super stuffy, no aircon :(. by the time i woke up, it was half hour to arrival. yay. haha.
reached kiev, found my way to the metro and took the metro to my hostel. checked-in, bathed and left for the chernobyl tour meeting place. the tour was, thought-provoking. like the auschwitz one. i dunno which place is sadder. both, innocent lives were lost, calamities in human history, but varying degrees of damage in different areas. both are lessons we shld learn, but we never.
on the 2hr drive to chernobyl, a video was screened in the van. it was basically a documentary about the chernobyl disaster. all the evacuation, deaths, lasting radioactive impacts. the thing that struck me most was that it took the soviet union 2 weeks to release the news that chernobyl exploded. and even within the 2 weeks, evacuation and all that were done secretly. men were sent to the site to rescue the fire without knowing the real risk. 28 firemen died due to overexposure in the first 2 weeks. it's like, if they had released the news earlier, evacuation in other areas could have been done and help would have come in from other places. damage may have been reduced. it's quite terrible. and here we have, japan falling into the same hole.
20years after the disaster, at the fall of the soviet union, real facts of the disaster were found in documents. and even unitl now, no data/statistics/information about survivors, rescue workers and all that.
the video interviewed some of the people who were at the frontline trying to salvage the situation. they have no regrets, they felt it was their duties. today, they visit the hospital very frequently due to damage to their bodies from radioactivity. heroes.
interesting fact: the angmohs thought i was japanese.
so we visited the town 3km from the nuclear plant. prypiat. it was a town built in 1970, specially for the nuclear plant workers and their families. many children from the plant died from overexposure. the people were only evacuated 48hours later. it was too late. the town was in ruins, due to neglect, age, looters and vandalism. it was, i dunno. like it felt so real. like i can imagine the mothers and children in the main square, the tourists and visitors in the hotel, the students in the school, the kids in the kindergarden and all the joy and laughter the amusement park (which was completed but nv open because the opening ceremony was on 1st may 1986 disaster happened 26th april 1986) would have brought. it's like, life should have been normal. there shouldn't be a bunch of random people visiting ruins at that site every day.
saw a kid's drawing in the school. it was sunny, happy and really colourful (typical kid's drawing you know). and i couldn't help but wonder if that kid had the chance to grow up and colour his/her own world.
we had lunch at the worker's cafeteria. yes there are people working at the nuclear plant. building foundation for a new confinement shelter for the exploded nuclear plant. omg worse meal of my entire trip. lol. after that we went to erm feed the catfish. nuclear plants need water for cooling right? so there was this water channel. and inside there are catfish. so we fed catfish. omg the catfish were sooooooo huge. like huuuuuuuuge. must be all the feeding. lol.
then we went to the observatory square of nuclear reactor 4 (the exploded reactor). looked at the confinement shelter and thought back about the video. thousands of men were used to build that shelter. it was such a huge and important task. and seemingly impossible. very inspirational if you ask me. the hard work, the commitment, the selflessness.
i recommend watching the video.
yup, that was about it. similar to the auschwitz conc camp, i think tours like this should emphasize the lessons rather than the story. this tour was ok, like the people in the group were actually thinking about the issue and what happened, what could have been prevented all that. interesting questions raised and interesting discussions. plus the input of different perspectives from all the different nationalites. there was a pole, 2 germans, 2 swedish, 2 americans, 3 finnish and 3 i dunno from where, oh and the ukraine guide of course. poland stopped the construction of their nuclear plant after the explosion.
on the way back, chatted with one of the germans. talked about the education system in germany and singapore. and also about national service. german says: your system is way cooler than ours. he wanted to study medicine on a military scholarship but the bond after studies is 11years long. that's a total of 17 years zomg. and it's not like at the end he will be some high ranking officer. he may not even have reached officer status.
walked along the main street, khreschchatyk street. didn't want to wander too far (i stay on a street parallel to the main street, really near) cos i didn't have a map and everything was ukrainian. not like in lviv, no signs, nothing. looked for a place to eat but omg damn expensive. probably cos it's along the main street. a bit like orchard road. in the end, i ate at this cafe beside my hostel. oooh really really nice and i knw i went to the right place cos at 7pm, the place was crowded. whee.
planning tmr's stuff. there's so many things to see in kiev. trying to squeeze everything i want to see in.
Day 16:
one word: tired. really. omg i walked for 10hours today. phew. think i got like 2 tones tanner or sth. haha. it was really hot today. hit 34deg. baaaah.
in the morning i left at 8ish to see some sights that were not covered by free tours. there's this motherland statue which is 100m tall. and the shield right at the top is a viewing platform. i was so prepared to pay to go up and eat bread for the next few meals. but it's closed. cos too hot. the statue is made of metal, so yah. so i didn't go all the way up. just went to the viewing platform 36m up. still had some view, but i bet the view right at the top must be super awesome.
walked along the river to take the metro. oh speaking of metro, i took to the deepest station in the world, 100m below ground level. omg over 3 mins to take the escalator up. haha. and apparantly, it is believed that a person living in kiev for the entire life, and takes the metro twice a day will spend 8years of his life underground. haha.
went for a free tour. 3 hours. walked around and saw major buildings and monuments and also some local stuff. really interesting. learnt some stuff about the history, and also about local life. then took a lunch break at some local student hangout with good cheap ukrainian food and went for the 2nd free tour. so that's 6 hours of free tours. lol. i didn't really like the 2nd guide, so i tipped him half of what i tipped the first guide. hehheh.
waaah damn tired. back to bathe, pack up and then i'll go see the lightings along the main street. it's just down the road :D mega like my hostel location.
it's back to london tmr. so fast.
Day 1:
Took a train from King's Cross to Luton Airport. Epic Fail #1: i didn't get my e-ticket stamped for visa purposes because i just thought i can walk through like any other trips. Got stopped at the gate before boarding the plane and the mean short guy did not want to let me on the plane, or back out to get the stamp. Another tall handsome guy excorted me out via don't know what way (but woah, i got to walk through unaccessedbypublic areas of the airport haha), got the stamp and had to do the security checks all over again, but i got on the plane fine :D whee :D
Reached Tallinn, Estonia 20mins early. Took a bus to the city centre and found my way successfully to my hostel. Really pretty hostel, with nice duvets and all. It was a 6 bed dorm. That night there was a hongkong guy, a canadian old woman (omg she is so cooooool she tours and tours when i grow old i want to be like her :D), a brit and a middle eastern who works in london.
Toured the Old Town that afternoon. Ate at a pub serving Estonian food in a European style (meaning estonian food tweaked for tourists -.-). and the chef that day was *drumroll* the chef from fat duck. YES the one michelin fat duck chef. slurp slurp :D omg the old town is full of cobblestones. i do not like cobblestones. they make my feet very painful. i dunno how the ladies there wear their heels.
ohh and i ate their national chocolate. it's like the uber famous everybody eats (there's like entire shelves of that brand in the supermarket) it. so i bought those atas one by one choose the flavour ones. bought 3 highly recommended by the shopowner and omg soooooo good. especially the marzipan (which originated from tallinn) super good. didn't buy for souvenir though (reason being..)
was super duper tired that night and slept at 11pm but the sky was so bright. i woke up at 7 the next day and it was alrdy bright i thought i took an afternoon nap -.-
Day 2:
I wanted to go the Lahemma National Park on Day 3 but apparantly it's only accessible by car, so i had to scrap that. Original plan was to go to Haapsalu (coastal town) today, but i changed that to Day 3 cos it was more convenient. So i went 270degrees around the Old Town.
I went to Kadriorg Park (NE of Old Town) to look at grass and statues and castles and the freedom monument, then i walked to the harbour (N of Old Town), sat on a bench and stared at a cruise come in. There's sth about the sea that attracts me. Love the sound of waves and looking at the cruise reminds me of my cruise trips. nostalgic :) and the sea reminds me of sailing :)
after that i went to the Open-Air Museum (SW of Old Town). took a bus cos it's quite far and talked to the old lady sitting beside me. she didn't really understand me and i didn't really understand her, but yah we managed to hold a 15min conversation. haha. the open-air museum is really really really nice, it showcases houses, farms and settlements of old Estonia, so really cool. and it's outdoors. you actly walk on grass and sand and yah it was by the sea. they had the real and some rebuilt houses of the past, and the best part is they actly hire pple to sit around and pretend they are from the past. just that a lot of them were talking on their phones -.- and i ate at this cafe which was in an old style tavern. the door is so difficult to opened i thought it was locked and they were closed. food served was all traditional estonian food, so i had a soup (i dunno what was inside but there's barley) and a drink. the drinks were pretty normal like coffee, tea but one had no translation so i ordered that. it's kama, some yogurt thing with grains, really really estonian and i like it :D
then i went to nomme (S of Old Town), which was where the old lady stayed. i wanted to see the residential area so i took a bus down to take a look. it was really interesting. they stay in houses along streets. like terrace houses, but standalones. bungalows? but anyway, the interesting thing is that every house is different. it's not like in singapore where all the houses look the same, each house was different. it's like there can be a stone house, then a wooden house, then a concrete house. no straw houses though.
Ready for Epic Fail #2? i was back at the hostel doing my accounts. when i realised i was short of a lot of Euros. so i took really good care of my stuff so i didn't think somebody stole my money, so i thought i rmbed the amount i changed wrongly. but no matter how i calculated, the amount didn't tally. so i smsed ziyang who was holding my room key to check how much i changed (i wrote it down) and guess what? i didn't rmb wrongly, i just forgot to bring the money. clapclap thankyou. so yup i brought over160Euros less than planned (85 actly, 75 was left from the previous trip which i didn't count it in). ah well, i survived. haha. have to pay for my chernobyl tour in UAH though. but yah, i'm fine :D
hongkong guy left.
Day 3:
Went to Haapsalu. it's a coastal town in western estonia. small town, with castles, and beaches. basically did a walkabout, and when i reached the promenade (omg it was so nice, there was nobody it was so peaceful so i sat and looked at the sea and fed birds) it EPIC FAIL #3 started raining -.- took shelter at a restaurant and had an estonian cake. then i decided to just go ahead with my walkabout with an umbrella. went to the harbour and spent the next two hours in and out of free galleries (because it was raining and nobody goes to the beach when it rains). Rain stopped and i made my way to the beach. wasn't really a beach, more of a seaside playground. there was a swing and i just sat on the swing and looked at the sea. told you i love the sea :D
then it got a bit cold, so i went to the only resort there and because the place looked like ZOMG atas maxed, i decided to just maybe hv a cup of tea while waiting for the bus to come. had a tomato soup instead and they served a welcome dish complimentary from the chef. smoked salmon, really fresh. and i noticed after that that the other tables didn't get it. wahahaha. my soup came and it was soooooooooo good could totally taste the freshness of the tomato soup and i was like ok i need to continue the meal. haha. so i ordered an estonian quail in grape soup, but they didn't hv that so the waiter suggested a pasta with smoked chicken and hazelnuts in an estonian style sauce and offered to change the chicken to quail. super yummy also :D then i finished my meal with a mojito creme brulee, made from estonian liquer. superb meal :D for less than 10euros :D love love :D
took the bus back to tallinn and then a coach to riga. this marked the end of the estonian leg of the journey and next is latvia!
Day 4:
arrived at riga at 4.50am. made my way to my hostel, avoiding leftover friday night clubbers. found my way there and they only allow check in at 12nn :( so i took a shower and slept for a while in the lounge. at around 8, the girl let me into the room (16 bed dorm), i put my things down, unpacked and ahem EPIC FAIL#4. i realised i left a bag of dirty clothes in tallinn -.- good thing there's only 2 tank tops from primark and a pair of socks. then i went out. the canoe trip i signed up for got cancelled so i decided to go to Sigulda National Park today instead of tmr.
took a quick look at the central market beside the bus station and bought a bag of awesomely sweet cherries :D
there was some cultural festival there, so it was really crowded and *gasps* lots of kids. basked in their festive mood, and trekked around. had sloanka, a soup with russian origins at the end point and took a bus back to riga.
reached riga at around 6, caught some parts of the GO blonde festival (a really big festival in riga where real and fake blondes compete for miss blonde or sth like that, and drinking and being blonde, yah). took out a map and followed it and toured the old town. more cobblestones. ate at a recommended restaurant and tried latvian food. yumyum :D
due to the lack of sleep, i slept at 10 and woke up at 8plus. hahaha. and my 16bed dorm only had 3 females that night, all solo travellers. woohoo :D
Day 5:
went to the art noveau architecture area. really really pretty houses. there was this picture in the guide book with an owl motiff and i walked the entire area looking for it. finally found it :D yay! but yah the architecture was really beautiful :) after that went to the central market. the market is huuuuuge. i love going to markets and supermarkets, it's these places where you can get some ideas of the everyday life of the people living there. and it's so busy, all the hustle and bustle makes me happy :D
then i went for lativan potato pancakes and a desert called bread soup (super super yummy) and woohoo headed to naughty squirrel hostel for the shooting. EPIC FAIL #5 when i arrived they were leaving cos they changed the time to an earlier one.so i kinda missed them as i was waiting for the receptionist who was attending to sb else. we chased them and reached the tram stop just in time. phew. i was the only female other than me was the hostel person who were bringing us there -.- nobody talked to me except for this philipino who worked in london.
when we reached the shooting range, which was originally a soviet bunk, we were given instructions and shooting started. first was a glock. we took turns to shoot and i was the last cos i stood the furthest from the lady in charge, who is the owner of the shooting range and some ex shooting champion. after i finished shooting she started spewing latvian words and the hostel person translated, basically, i'm good. hahahaha. next was the ak. i don't think it's ak47. if i didn't rmb wrongly, i think it's ak101, a more advanced version. the impact wasn't so great, it was ok. a bit scary at the start though. and yah, she started spewing more latvia. now, i'm really really good. hahahaha. third and last was the shot gun (the one the hunter used to chase bugs bunny). this one is the cooooolest. cos we had to load it. you knw the whole CHA-CHING thing. damn cool. and because this one gets hotter with use, the lady asked me to go first. hehheh. got a shock for the first one. the impact was huge. but yeah, after this, i'm talented. hahahaha. ohh and the group started talking to me. it's like i'm no longer this small asian girl (ok, i knw i'm not small, but most of them were big angmors, aussie i think), but somebody worth talking to. talked to them for a while. after we finished the shooting, went back to the hostel and chatted for awhile. omg this 2 guys are going to do a 4 month drive all around europe trip. super cool. oh and i impress them with my trip. they were like, wow but you're asian! eh what? asians pack a punch too,k?
then i went to the main branch of this Lido Group of restaurants. really highly recommended. it has it's own bus stop. it's not just a restaurant, it has it's own mini theme park for kids. and it's the largest log house in europe. the setting is marche style, you see, you choose, you take then you pay at the end counted. omg the variety was overwhelming. when i walked in i was like "shunjie, jolene, i need you here. NOW". the place is amazaing. a really relaxed happy atmosphere, food with quantity, quality and variety. i was enjoying myself, looking at the latvians dance spontaneously to the music and enjoying my food, i didn't want to leave.
tonight, there's only me and another dutch lady in the 16 room dorm. this is worth it. haha. oh and i figured out where. there's a room where alcohol is allowed downstairs. so all the men took that room. haha.
and that's all for now. ok, this was supposed to be a short note :b i'm really really glad i made this trip. i was a little nervous at first, i mean it's so long, and it's eastern europe. i actually did think of shortening it or forfeiting it, but i decided it was going to worth it and it has been so far :D really really enjoying myself and having the time of my life :D
every night i want to go to sleep quickly because i can't wait for the next day, but i don't want to sleep because i don't want today to end.
thank you mummy and daddy for letting me do this :D
Day 6:
planned to cycle from riga to jurmala (a seaside town) and then along the cycling path to kemeri nature reserve. Epic Fail #6 that didn't happen. the bicycle rental shop bluff me, they said they open at 9.30 but the waiter at the restaurant opp say they always open at 11. so i decided to train to jurmala and rent a bike there instead. when i reached jurmala, i looked for the info centre and she gave me the few nearest bike rental shops. none.of.them.were.open. bloody. hell. so ok fine, don't cycle lor. i walk. maybe it was a good thing, cos there were many places that were unreachable by bike.
and i walked along the beach. ommmggg love it. cos it was a monday, so the beach was pretty quiet. weather was ok, a little sunny but with a lot of clouds. so the sun came in and out. the sand was fine, the wind was cooling and the sound of the waves was therapeutic. and it's the baltic sea, and the waters in this region are less salty than normal sea water, so you don't get the sticky sticky feeling. very very chillax :) walked around and looked at the area then i took a minibus to kemeri. the moment i got off the bus i was like o.o super dilapidated. not a human in sight. so i scrapped the idea of going into the nature reserve, in case i get lost and nobody knows, walked through the outside park and waited for a bus to bring me back to civilisation. wanted to ferry back, but i missed it so i trained back instead.
dinner was fun. haha. i basically have about 5lats to spend. the last 5lats. so i needed to find a cheap place. i just anyhow walk and i came by this interesting pelmini place. pelmini is a kind of dumpling with russian origins. and it's sold by weight. so you take as many as you want, they weigh it and you pay how much you take. so i had pelmini and i had a bowl of cold beetroot soup. it's a baltic soup. called zulva supa or sth like that. it looks like bandung. it's basically beetroot, cucumber, chopped egg and kefir (buttermilk) and dill. it tasted pretty good, but i believe it's acquired taste. whoever thought of mixing those things together... so the soup and pelmini cost me 1.70lats. then i crossed the street and had dessert :D had a chocolate cake with riga black blasam cream. black balsam is a liqueur only found in riga. that's 1.50lats. so i spent 3.20lats :D still got leftover for breakfast tmr :D hehheh.
so this marks the end of leg 2, the latvian leg. taking a 5hour bus to klaipeda, lithuania tmr. wheeeee :D
Day 7:
omg one week. i've been travelling alone for an entire week. wooo. in klaipeda, lithuania now. woah my god it is daaaaamn hot. it's 29deg today. spent most of the time on a bus though. wanted to take the 9.30am bus from riga and reach at 2pm but there were no more seats so i had to take the 11.15am one. reached at around 4.15pm. EPIC FAIL #7. seriously, do i have to have one everyday? -.- but maybe it was good, cos the 9.30am one was a minibus and i one i took was a big coach with nice big chairs. so anyway, i spent the 5 hours looking at the scenery. lots of vast green land with random houses here and there. and they have many many ponds and lakes. plus the clear blue sky today, pretty :D lithuania is 200m below sea level on average. random fact. haha. yup, so reached klaipeda, checked into my hostel which is like right at the door step of the bus station.
went to the old town to tour. after tallinn and riga, klaipeda's old town just pales in comparison. it was really quiet. ohh and they hv a lot of random statues here and there. like a cupid here, a mouse there, a cat somewhere else. apparantly, your secret wishes will come true if you stroke the cat's tail. but there was a couple making out so erm i gave it a miss. haha. if i have the time i'll go look for more.
i didn't really feel like exploring cos of the super duper hot weather, so i looked for dinner. had some fried cod thingy. omg the cod is suuuuuper fresh. ohh and i had a gira, which is similar to the kvass in latvia. hooked on the drink. it's very yummy :D then i made my way back to the hostel. i need to wash my clothes. haha. tmr's my last set boo.
oh and i bought a bottle of sunblock. haha.
Day 8:
OMMMMGGG I AM SOOOOO TIRED MY LEGS ARE GOING TO GIVE WAY SOON. anyway, today was hell of an adventure. hahaha. so i went to curonian spit, a long narrow stretch of land made up of sand dunes. Human habitation of this elongated sand dune peninsula, 98 km long and 0.4-4 km wide, dates back to prehistoric times. Throughout this period it has been threatened by the natural forces of wind and waves. Its survival to the present day has been made possible only as a result of ceaseless human efforts to combat the erosion of the Spit, dramatically illustrated by continuing stabilisation and reforestation projects.
original plan was to ferry there with a bike rented from my hostel, cycle to the other end and ferry back. but the ferry only goes from one end, so if i cycle i have to do to and fro which is like 100km. seeing that i've walked for a week and have another week to walk, i decided not to. 50km can, 100? maybe not. so i decided to ferry there, and bus about.
so i reached there. walked ard a little while waiting for the bus which is once every 3 hours for both directions. reached the other end, nida. the main attraction is the highest sand dune, 52m above sea level. so i walked to the sand dune and climbed up. it was sandy. haha. so a bit difficult to walk but i reached the top. omg the view was breathtaking. i dunno why, i was awed. it was like i can see the rest of the island, i can see the curonian lagoon on one side, the baltic sea on the other and i can see a bit of russia (not the big piece, russia has this other area beside lithuania). it was damn cool. at that moment, i was like, omg jasvin you're awesome. hahahaha. after the initial *gasp*, i saw this wooden path. damn. i walked up the sandy way -.-
so i just walked around the village after that, had lunch and caught the next bus to the centre part of the spit. i finished seeing the sights in about an hour. so i had 2 hours to kill before the next bus. i didn't want to go to the beach, cos i'm doing that tmr, so i decided to chill at the harbour. the moment i sat down, omg mosquitoes attack! so i couldn't sit. i had to walk ard but walking along the harbour for 2 hours is lame. so i decided to walk towards the ferry terminal, 18km away. there's this monument at the halfway mark. so i decided to walk to the monument and then take the bus from there. 1 hour 30 mins shld be enough. the walk was pretty ok. i could see the curonian lagoon, it was sunny and windy so the feeling was kinda good. only thing was the mosquitoes and sandflies. omg ive never seen so many sandflies before and the mosquitoes look more like dragonflies.
time was enough, i reached the monument and waited for the bus. ah ha, EPIC FAIL #9. i chose the wrong time to turn around, open my bag, reached for my water bottle and drink water. of all things, i cannot multi-task when it comes to drinking water. when i finished my water and put down my bottle, i saw the backside of the bus. OMG MY HEART DROPPED TO THE FLOOR AND TUNNEL THROUGH ABOUT 4238972km. the next bus is 3 hours later.the walk down is another 1 hour 30 mins. damn. so i decided to hitchhike. dangerous i know i know, but i selectively hitch hike. i told myself, i try 3 vehicles, by the third one if nobody fetch me, i'm calling the tourism office to save me.
1st car was a car of family, they didn't stop. maybe the car was too full with a dog and a baby. 2nd car was 2 females 1 male, i saw them at the harbour. they didn't stop either. 3rd car i was like omg pleeeeeeease stop. i put out my thumb, and the car drove past. it was an old couple, and the car drove past cos the old man didn't have time to react, he stopped a little down. YAY! so they didn't speak english and i didn't speak lithuanian, so using hand gestures and a map and pointing, they not only fetched me to the ferry terminal, they fetched me to the next destination. OMG SOOOOO NICE AND I AM SOOOO GRATEFUL :D wheepee!
had dinner, and came back to the hostel. i am sooo tired. the only walking i'm doing tmr is walk to the bus stop and take bus. hahaha. oh and lithuanian food is a little on the salty side for me. but the desserts are nice. they make yummy things out of raspberry, the same way latvians make yummy things out of rye bread. haha.
tiiiirreeedddd, but happy :D
Day 9:
woah, more than half my trip gone.
today i went to palanga beach, a beach along the baltic sea. i suntan facing north pole ok? cool hor. spain and greece and croatia? bo-o-ring! haha jkjk i still want to go :b yup, so today was chillax to the max. i went to palanga, found a nice spot and lepak there for 3 hours. then i decided to go walk about, but i just kept thinking of the beach. so i went back and sunbathed for another 2 hours. wheeee :D damn chill. lovely weather as well. sunny but couldn't feel the heat. love it :D after that i had dinner. omg the dessert was super good.
that's all i did today. rest and relax :D recharge for the next 8 days :b off to vilnius in a while :D damn excited for the next 8 days. people i've met have been telling me how beautiful vilnius, krakow and kiev are. ooooh excitement much :D :D :D
ohh and i saw my first chinese today. haha. met a hk lady at the hostel. hahahaha.
ohh and lithuanian tv is cool. you knw how voices are dubbed on tv? yah well, they do that in lithuania too, just that one person dubs the voice of everybody. so it was really funny when it's a woman talking, but a man's voice. it's like watching a monologue. hahahaha.
tata!
Day 10:
omg i just realised day 9 no epic fail :D ytd dun hv also :D yay :D
reached vilnius at around 5.45am ytd, after a 6 hour bus ride. had a pleasant surprise. woke up at 3.30 and saw the sunrise. pretty :D i went back to slp and when i woke up again i thought i dreamt that i saw the sunrise, but nope, it's real. there's photos in my camera :D whee. and i saw the night sky for the 2nd time since i started my trip. first one was during the bus ride from tallinn to riga. haha. probably will see it one more time tonight on the freaking 14hour bus ride to krakow o.O
ok so anyway, i reached my hostel and i originally wanted to upgrade to a single or double room. but i saw the dorm and decided not to. the dorm is very cute. the beds are like huge shelves fitted with mattress. so i have a 'shelf' to myself and it's really cosy. and each shelf has a powerpoint, a lamp, a hook and a place to put our small items like hp and specs. it was pretty nice :D omg and the toilet is daaaaamn nice. like hotel one. whee.
so i slept for a couple more hours and headed off. went to trakai. it's a historic city and lake resort. it has the only castle in the world built on an island. basically there's this piece of land in the middle of 5 lakes and the only thing there is a castle. really tranquil place. plus it wasn't peak season, so it wasn't really crowded, as with all other places :D yay. wanted to take a yatch to go around the lakes, but it's damn ex. cos i would need to rent the whole yatch. would be worth it if it was a group. tried to haggle but to no avail. so i took the ferry instead. haha. still nice, just that yatch cool ma :b hahahaha. oh and there was a group of MPs from Kyrgyzstan. so this guy saw me and asked if i was from central asia cos he thought it'll be cool if i was and i can go talk to to the Kyrgyzstan people. haha.
ate at a recommended restaurant for karaim food, food of the Crimean Karaites who inhabit the place. i knew i was at the right place cos there was this tour group there. taiwanese. talk about seeing my first chinese -.- haha. saw so many today. and while i was waiting for my food, kyrgyzstan people came. haha. woo the puff pastry damn nice :D
after that i went to the center of europe. it's this point 26km north of vilnius which is internationally recognised as the geographical centre of europe. so having this weird liking for special points (think 3 point land hahah), i wanted to go see. there was basically a monument by a lithuanian sculptor and 20 over flags of european countries. i wanted to take pictures of the flags of countries i've been to, but i realise i dunno how the flags look like, like you knw the vertical horizontal stripes? confusing. so i gave up. haha. and then i walked around the area, all grass and grass and grass. cos it was near a golf course. hahaha. watched people play golf, saw a mount of grass and decided to climb up to get a view of the grass and didn't realise it was so steep until i wanted to go down. made it down safely and went to wait for my bus.
i am very brave. this bus also comes once in 3 hours. hahaha. so to prevent missing the bus and having to try to hitch hike or walk 26km back to vilnius, i didn't do anything else but focused on the road. i just looked at the road and with any sign of sth that looks like it could be the bus, i stood up. hahaha. success ok? haha i boarded the bus and phew :D drank water. haha. cos it was really hot :x
reached vilnius and just wandered around the old town looking for food. haha. then i came back and i wanted to do my laundry but i can only do so at 10pm. so i thought i will hv to wait, but nope :D all i have to do is pass my laundry to the person and she'll do it for me :D yay :D haha. clean clothes! :D
Day 11:
the lithuanian leg is coming to an end. leaving at 5pm for krakow. 14 hours bus ride. woah. wish me luck. hope i can get some english book/magazine/newspaper to read. still hv a little litai left to spend. baaaah.
so anyway today i walked the old town, looked at the buildings, architecture and sights. pretty crowded at some streets. some were just damn quiet. and i climbed 2 hills. one to see the castle ruins and another to see 3 crosses. haha jk, the 2nd one was for the view.
there was some challenge going on, so throughout the whole day i saw pple running, cycling, carrying kayaks. quite cool. i saw a handsome one and said all the best to him. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
ate at some lithuanian restaurant. omg the dessert was awesome. dunno what it is but it was good. haha. and now spent the next hour trying to finish up my litai but i couldn't find anything to buy :( probably get something at the bus station later.
wheeee :D 6 more days left!
Day 12:
KRAKOW! in my 4th country at the moment. different timezone from the rest. haha. different currency, again. came from vilnius on a 14hr bus ride. omg butt pain max. but it was fine. cos i just slept most of the time. read half of the time magazine i bought. hehheh. quite interesting. ohh and i tried catching the sunset and sunrise. didn't really see the sun. but saw the nice sky colours :D
upon reaching, trammed to my hostel. pretty nice. 4 to a room this time. so i unpacked, and bathed and washed some stuff. wanted to sleep for a while but i was too excited about seeing krakow. haha. so i couldn't sleep. so i just checked out some krakow stuff and a new roomie came. a big bloke from canada with tattoos. sounds scary? haha omg he's super friendly and he's a nurse by training. looks really damn deceiving. haha.
then i went to a sunday market at plac nowy. just walked around. then i went to the main market square to look look see see and to wait for the free tour. pretty interesting, learnt more about the history of poland and krakow (pronounced kra-kov by the way cos their w is pronounced as v). and the guide was quite good. wanted to tip him more but ah well, tight budget :b haha. the tour took like 3 hours. omg it was hot at 33deg. like 8 and a half months since i was in that temp.
after the free tour i went to wieliczka salt mine. that was another 3 hours, looking at the mine and the museum. omg the salt mine is awesome. it was kinda inspiring, really. the machinery and technology used back in the 12th and 13th century, simple in today's terms, but really really amazing. engineers ftw! haha. oh and practically everything inside was salt and wood. omg timber! haha for support. reminds me of materials :b oh and i saw the nicest chapel ever. it was inside the salt mine and everything was done by 3 miners. it was really really really beautiful. and the salt mine was a good excuse to escape the heat. haha. there's this ventilation system in the mine that keeps the temp at 14deg whatever the season. quite cool.
at the end of the tour i was super tired! legs were screaming. had a polish dinner at a place recommended by the free tour guide and back to the hostel. super tired.
early day tmr. gng to auschwitz and another free tour.
whee :D very tired, but very happy :D
Day 13:
woke up, ate breakfast and checked fb, email blahblahblah. went to double confirm my flight to kiev the next morning and realised it's stated as cancelled o.O bloody hell. skyped my mum and asked her to check for me (cos the office wasn't open and i was going out).
went to auschwitz (pronounced ows-vict) concentration camp. and it was a 3.5hr tour so i couldn't make it for the afternoon jewish quarter free tour. the trip to auschwitz was sad. it's a really saddening place. i took a few photos and didn't feel like taking anymore. felt like i dunno, 1.5million people died at auschwitz and birkenau camps and people were snapping away happily, posing with the crematorium and all that. i felt it was a little disrecpectful.
it was an informative tour. learnt about how things were like in the camps and some ww2 facts. after the tour, while waiting for the shuttle bus, i talked to this new zealander. he was at the tour alone too cos his wife didn't want to do the tour (she was deeply affected when she visited the germany camp). yah and apparantly we had similar thoughts, about how some people were not getting the message from the camp. like the camp was preserved and kept, for people to visit, not as a tourist attraction, but more of a memorial for the millions of innocent people who died and suffered and to serve as a reminder that we should work together to prevent such atrocities. and such atrocities have been happening for such a long time and is still happening. will we ever learn?
and when he realised i was from singapore he was like "oh, the only place where a social experiment succeeded". we discussed a bit about it, and a little about genghis khan (he killed 10 times as many people as hitler did fyi). it was a pretty cool discussion. he travelled very far and very wide and he had very interesting pespectives.
omg he is damn cool, he and his wife and another couple drove from hongkong and they are continuing to western europe and finishing in uk. and they have been doing such driving trips for 30years. mega cool. gave some tips on backpacking home from uk. jiapei!!! hahaha.
ok so after the tour, i headed back to the city and went to the train station to find out about trains to ukraine. basically, my flight really is cancelled, alternative flights are from 300pounds and the train ride is 20hrs. not an issue really, i mean no choice right? but if i took the direct train, i will miss my chernobyl tour on the 8th and i alrdy paid for tht deposit. so i was looking for alternatives. and since i had to take a train, i rather spend the night travelling and use the day to see the place. so i thought i'll break my ride into 2 and stopover at lviv.
there was a 10.15pm train to lviv, reaching at 6am (6.5hrs cos of time difference). but they couldn't tell me if there were trains from lviv to kiev. so i went back to my hostel to check. so yup there were, overnight somemore and i will reach in time for my chernobyl tour. so i washed up, packed, checked out and went to buy the train ticket to lviv before getting dinner. murphy's law: what will go wrong will go wrong. no more tickets :( normal ones at least. still had first class.
and i decided to take the first class. because the total trip will be 15pounds more expensive then the direct train to kiev, and i won't miss my chernobyl tour and i get to tour lviv for a day. yup so i got it. bought the ticket, heart pain and went to reward myself with a good dinner and desserts :D
omg first class was super shiok. basically, instead of seats, we get cabins. there's 2, 3 or 4 to a cabin. i got the 2 person cabin but there was only me inside. so there were 2 beds, a tv, a fridge, my own toilet. like a mini hotel room. the refreshments in the fridge are for me. whee :D there was a bottle of water, a bottle of orange juice and a chocolate bar. shiok. haha. ohh still got a towel to wash up.
so since there was only me, i made myself at home, changed into my sleeping clothes :b washed up and slept. wah amazing. haha. not the most comfy bed, and the pillow was quite flat (so i took the other pillow as well :b) but better then seats right? haha. yup and slept through, only got woken up when we passed the border and the customs officer came to check passports. my neighbour didn't have visas so they were sent back to poland by car (i heard the translator). after settling my passport, the customs officer said "welcome to ukraine!" haha. i think that's the only english he knows. lol. ohh the translator was a passenger. apparantly it's normal. the officer will look for somebody on the train who can translate. in restaurants too apparantly. went back to sleep and got woken up a little before arrival by breakfast delivery. had a croissant and a tea. whee. shiok max :D
Day 14:
Arrived in Lviv super on time, first thing went to get my train tickets to kiev. yay got it! and i got the first class again. not because there was no more normal class but the price difference is like erm 4pounds? for a bed? for 10hrs? worth it. haha. so bought my tix, had my daily dosage of internet and went out. oh i put my baggage at the baggage centre. it's 10uah for the whole day. that's less than a pound.
tourist centre opened at 10 but i was out before 8, so i decided to just walk around until the office opens to get a map. took a tram to the city centre and when i reached i was like :O super nice! lviv was influenced by western europe because it's in west ukraine and it used to belong to poland. so the architecture was rennaisance. super beautiful. i just walked and admired the buildings. and there were many signs showing where attractions were, so i just walked randomly and followed the signs. walked for 3hrs and went to the tourist office. took the map and realised i saw most of the attractions. haha. awesome me.
walked around a little longer. and i noticed that the lviv people are damn chillax. like tuesday morning sitting on a bench chatting, reading, or at a cafe eating ice cream, drinking coffee/beer. erm no need work ah? it just got more crowded as the day passed. so i decided to immerse myself in the lvivian atmosphere. i went to a cafe and chillax too. haha. people watched, read the brochures i got from the tourist office. chillax max. haha. oh i drank coffee. apparantly, lviv is famous for that. coffee was pretty good. oh and the traditional apple pie was good too. a bit too dry though.
after that i went to the armoury museum. 3uah (erm less than 30p lol). uber cool. saw the armoury from the past. at first i was like woah cool. and figuring out how some stuff worked and trying to imagine how they fought. some weapons seriously don't make sense. like there was a rifle with only the barrel, no handle. won't hot ah? and there were some swords/spears thingies that look so heavy that once you hold them you cannot fight. lol. and some of the weapons were really nice, like they had very intricate details like carvings and stuff.
ah well, beyond that, they were used to kill and injure. why? sorry, still emo nemo from auschwitz.
then i went to the bell tower. climbed like over 300 steps up. think i climbed a lot this trip. haha. the view was awesome. from up there i looked at where i walked and where i missed. then i went back down and walked the places i thought looked interesting from the bell tower. haha. glad i did, i walked pass more rennaisance buildings and lviv university. lviv university is really pretty. and it's 350 years old.
ohh the train station is really pretty too. pleasant surprise upon arrival :)
after walking around, i found this dining place at a corner where there was a lot of human traffic, so i went in. it was cafeteria styled. you take your food and pay. similar to lido at riga. omg awesome. if only shunjie and jolene were there. i had a layered liver cake (i dunno who's liver but it's ukranian so i try), cabbage rolls, a glass of kvas and a slice of some layered strudly custard torte. super yummy, including the liver cake. all for less than 3pounds. amazing. haha. oh and the cabbage rolls were really nice. think i'll try and learn how to make. hehheh.
after makan, walked around somemore just to see the buildings again and back to the train station. off to kiev! :D
oh i didn't talk much today. mostly pointed and sign language. haha. few people understnad english. so i wrote down key stuff in russian and basically just point and gesture. haha. ah well, worked well :D heh. and the foreign symbols all over the place may be intimidating at first but it was fine. couldn't understand a thing. but some places do hv english translation.
oh and people in lviv are very religious. they have alike crosses around the place and i noticed that people will do the hand to heart shoulder thingy when they passed. some will stop and pray or sth.
and the fashion sense here is... like the ladies all seem pretty well-enodowed in the chest area and they somehow seem to like wearing clothes a size too small. boobs were spilling out from everywhere. i saw a lot of boobs today. either that, or they show their bra. interesting fact. so guys, if you want to visit ukraine, do so in the summer .winter all wrapped up, nth to see :b
Day 15:
arrived in kiev. finally! got the sleeper train. not as shiok as the previous train cos it's an intercity train and not an international train. it's a 4 to a cabin. with 4 beddy things. i got the bed on the upper deck and the bed doesnt hv like rails or what. so it was quite scary. and i couldn't move down cos there were 2 other ladies in my cabin. ah well. the pillow was damn good though. haha. omg and the toilet is the most awful one i've seen in a very very long time. didn't use the toilet at all. sorry, i very anal abt toilet cleaniness one. the train ride was 10hrs, i slept for 9. spent the first half hour trying to slp cos the cabin was super stuffy, no aircon :(. by the time i woke up, it was half hour to arrival. yay. haha.
reached kiev, found my way to the metro and took the metro to my hostel. checked-in, bathed and left for the chernobyl tour meeting place. the tour was, thought-provoking. like the auschwitz one. i dunno which place is sadder. both, innocent lives were lost, calamities in human history, but varying degrees of damage in different areas. both are lessons we shld learn, but we never.
on the 2hr drive to chernobyl, a video was screened in the van. it was basically a documentary about the chernobyl disaster. all the evacuation, deaths, lasting radioactive impacts. the thing that struck me most was that it took the soviet union 2 weeks to release the news that chernobyl exploded. and even within the 2 weeks, evacuation and all that were done secretly. men were sent to the site to rescue the fire without knowing the real risk. 28 firemen died due to overexposure in the first 2 weeks. it's like, if they had released the news earlier, evacuation in other areas could have been done and help would have come in from other places. damage may have been reduced. it's quite terrible. and here we have, japan falling into the same hole.
20years after the disaster, at the fall of the soviet union, real facts of the disaster were found in documents. and even unitl now, no data/statistics/information about survivors, rescue workers and all that.
the video interviewed some of the people who were at the frontline trying to salvage the situation. they have no regrets, they felt it was their duties. today, they visit the hospital very frequently due to damage to their bodies from radioactivity. heroes.
interesting fact: the angmohs thought i was japanese.
so we visited the town 3km from the nuclear plant. prypiat. it was a town built in 1970, specially for the nuclear plant workers and their families. many children from the plant died from overexposure. the people were only evacuated 48hours later. it was too late. the town was in ruins, due to neglect, age, looters and vandalism. it was, i dunno. like it felt so real. like i can imagine the mothers and children in the main square, the tourists and visitors in the hotel, the students in the school, the kids in the kindergarden and all the joy and laughter the amusement park (which was completed but nv open because the opening ceremony was on 1st may 1986 disaster happened 26th april 1986) would have brought. it's like, life should have been normal. there shouldn't be a bunch of random people visiting ruins at that site every day.
saw a kid's drawing in the school. it was sunny, happy and really colourful (typical kid's drawing you know). and i couldn't help but wonder if that kid had the chance to grow up and colour his/her own world.
we had lunch at the worker's cafeteria. yes there are people working at the nuclear plant. building foundation for a new confinement shelter for the exploded nuclear plant. omg worse meal of my entire trip. lol. after that we went to erm feed the catfish. nuclear plants need water for cooling right? so there was this water channel. and inside there are catfish. so we fed catfish. omg the catfish were sooooooo huge. like huuuuuuuuge. must be all the feeding. lol.
then we went to the observatory square of nuclear reactor 4 (the exploded reactor). looked at the confinement shelter and thought back about the video. thousands of men were used to build that shelter. it was such a huge and important task. and seemingly impossible. very inspirational if you ask me. the hard work, the commitment, the selflessness.
i recommend watching the video.
yup, that was about it. similar to the auschwitz conc camp, i think tours like this should emphasize the lessons rather than the story. this tour was ok, like the people in the group were actually thinking about the issue and what happened, what could have been prevented all that. interesting questions raised and interesting discussions. plus the input of different perspectives from all the different nationalites. there was a pole, 2 germans, 2 swedish, 2 americans, 3 finnish and 3 i dunno from where, oh and the ukraine guide of course. poland stopped the construction of their nuclear plant after the explosion.
on the way back, chatted with one of the germans. talked about the education system in germany and singapore. and also about national service. german says: your system is way cooler than ours. he wanted to study medicine on a military scholarship but the bond after studies is 11years long. that's a total of 17 years zomg. and it's not like at the end he will be some high ranking officer. he may not even have reached officer status.
walked along the main street, khreschchatyk street. didn't want to wander too far (i stay on a street parallel to the main street, really near) cos i didn't have a map and everything was ukrainian. not like in lviv, no signs, nothing. looked for a place to eat but omg damn expensive. probably cos it's along the main street. a bit like orchard road. in the end, i ate at this cafe beside my hostel. oooh really really nice and i knw i went to the right place cos at 7pm, the place was crowded. whee.
planning tmr's stuff. there's so many things to see in kiev. trying to squeeze everything i want to see in.
Day 16:
one word: tired. really. omg i walked for 10hours today. phew. think i got like 2 tones tanner or sth. haha. it was really hot today. hit 34deg. baaaah.
in the morning i left at 8ish to see some sights that were not covered by free tours. there's this motherland statue which is 100m tall. and the shield right at the top is a viewing platform. i was so prepared to pay to go up and eat bread for the next few meals. but it's closed. cos too hot. the statue is made of metal, so yah. so i didn't go all the way up. just went to the viewing platform 36m up. still had some view, but i bet the view right at the top must be super awesome.
walked along the river to take the metro. oh speaking of metro, i took to the deepest station in the world, 100m below ground level. omg over 3 mins to take the escalator up. haha. and apparantly, it is believed that a person living in kiev for the entire life, and takes the metro twice a day will spend 8years of his life underground. haha.
went for a free tour. 3 hours. walked around and saw major buildings and monuments and also some local stuff. really interesting. learnt some stuff about the history, and also about local life. then took a lunch break at some local student hangout with good cheap ukrainian food and went for the 2nd free tour. so that's 6 hours of free tours. lol. i didn't really like the 2nd guide, so i tipped him half of what i tipped the first guide. hehheh.
waaah damn tired. back to bathe, pack up and then i'll go see the lightings along the main street. it's just down the road :D mega like my hostel location.
it's back to london tmr. so fast.
Tuesday 24 May 2011
another chapter closed
EXAMS ARE FINALLY FREAKING OVER! :D i guess this marks the end of being a fresher. ah i still have a stupid field trip but that's year 2 stuff, so technically speaking, OMG MY FIRST YEAR IS O-V-E-R.
amazing amazing year :D new friends, new experiences, new life.
i look back at my to do list and let's see what i've done. must keep track :b
and by the time i go back to singapore, i would have gone to...
1) UK - scotland, england, wales (stupid field trip)
2) Germany
3) Netherlands
4) Belgium
5) Norway
6) Austria
7) Slovakia
8) Hungary
9) Estonia
10) Latvia
11) Lithuania
12) Poland
13) Ukraine
14) UAE
AWEEEEESOOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEE :D
ok maybe when i'm free i'll come up with a list of what i've done and where i've been. sole purpose is to make you jealous. really. hahahahahaha :D sorry post-exam high.
omg i'm super duper wuper excited :D
amazing amazing year :D new friends, new experiences, new life.
i look back at my to do list and let's see what i've done. must keep track :b
DO
- Appear on the Dean’s List (i'm sorry, mugger by nature :)) [got chance got chance :D hopefully]
- Climb/hike up a mountain and camp at the top
- Cross the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
- Cross the Millau Viaduct in France
- Eat at a three-star Michelin restaurant [ate at a one star in eindhoven, netherlands. one step at a time :)]
- Go horse-riding
- Go on a caravan trip
- Go on a cycling tour [NEXT YEAR!]
- Go on a hot air balloon ride [NEXT YEAR!]
- Go on a volunteer trip [NEXT YEAR!]
- Learn German [hahah mission aborted]
Make friends from at least 30 different countries[easy peasy :D]- Run a marathon [NEXT YEAR!]
- Savour cheese from every country visited [doing doing :D]
- Skydive/Hang-gliding or anything from the sky to the ground safely [NEXT YEAR!]
- Take part in a weird quirky competition [NEXT YEAR!]
Travel alone- Try local delicacies no matter how disgusting they sound [doing doing :D]
Watch a famous musical[phantom, les mis, oliver, chicago, wicked]Watch a soccer match[3 in fact. haha]
SEE
- Baby-Jumping Colacho Festival in Spain [NEXT YEAR!]
- Cheese Museum/Factory
- Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling in England [NEXT YEAR!]
Fjords of Norway- Giant's Causeway in Ireland [NEXT YEAR!]
- Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
Harry Potter Filming Locations- La Tomatina in Spain [NEXT YEAR!]
- Land's End in Cornwall [NEXT YEAR!]
- Leaning Tower of Pisa before it becomes the Fallen Tower [NEXT YEAR!]
Loch Ness- Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany [NEXT YEAR!]
- Northern lights / Midnight Sun / Polar Nights [NEXT YEAR!]
- Olympia and Ancient Greece [NEXT YEAR!]
- Queen’s Day in Netherlands [NEXT YEAR!]
- Real Mona Lisa painting [NEXT YEAR!]
- Roman Bath [NEXT YEAR!]
Stonehenge- The Coliseum in Rome [NEXT YEAR!]
- Vatican City, the Angles and Demons way [NEXT YEAR!]
and by the time i go back to singapore, i would have gone to...
1) UK - scotland, england, wales (stupid field trip)
2) Germany
3) Netherlands
4) Belgium
5) Norway
6) Austria
7) Slovakia
8) Hungary
9) Estonia
10) Latvia
11) Lithuania
12) Poland
13) Ukraine
14) UAE
AWEEEEESOOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEE :D
ok maybe when i'm free i'll come up with a list of what i've done and where i've been. sole purpose is to make you jealous. really. hahahahahaha :D sorry post-exam high.
omg i'm super duper wuper excited :D
Friday 8 April 2011
DECLARED HIATUS
It's coming to an end to my first year in university. Official lessons have ended. It's now the spring break. After the break, it's the exams. I want/need the first class.
I had an amazing first year.
I had an amazing birthday.
I had an amazing holiday to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
time to end the year amazingly by doing well for the exams, so i'm gna be a mugger and i'm gng to ignore this blog for a while. photos are all on facebook.
kthxbye!
I had an amazing first year.
I had an amazing birthday.
I had an amazing holiday to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
time to end the year amazingly by doing well for the exams, so i'm gna be a mugger and i'm gng to ignore this blog for a while. photos are all on facebook.
kthxbye!
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